Ever since 2020, Toronto-based entrepreneurs Amanda Nguyen and David Borish have been on a mission to make Boardball the hottest summertime sport, and the latest step on that journey is pitching their business on an upcoming episode of Dragons’ Den.
A mix between volleyball and Trinity Bellwoods staple, Spikeball, Boardball is typically played in teams of 2, with players hitting a volleyball against a compact, portable board, making it possible to practice volleyball skills (or, simply, spike against your friends) anywhere.
“What makes Boardball unique are its red edges,” Amanda tells blogTO.
“Just like getting blocked in volleyball, if you hit the red edge, you’ve been blocked by the board. The fun twist? Your team gets an additional three touches to keep the rally alive.”
The idea first arose, Amanda tells blogTO, when she was on a trip with a group of fellow volleyball-loving friends, wanting to play a game but being ultimately unable to find a net.
“We improvised by hitting the ball against a wooden bridge over a pool,” she says, “and it turned out to be a blast!”
From there, she enlisted her longtime friend, David Borish, as well as David Wheeler (who Amanda describes as her “rock” on the business side) to begin experimenting with makeshift set ups and rules to develop the game.
“When the pandemic hit and we lost our playing space, I built a portable prototype to be able to bring it outside but without even realizing what it would lead to,” Amanda tells blogTO.
“On our first day playing outside in downtown Toronto, a group of people playing spikeball approached us and asked us to play. A video of us went viral on TheScore, and that night, we officially incorporated.”
Amanda and David first began selling their Boardball sets in September of 2021 and, as Amanda tells blogTO, “the rest is history!”
Boardball has since been entered physical education curriculums across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, on top of doing a booming business among grown-ups through their online store and various retailers, but it hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
“One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced with Boardball is that, as a new sport, it often gets compared to Spikeball,” Amanda tells blogTO.
“While there are similarities, the experience is completely different—much like how ping pong, tennis, and pickleball each have their own unique feel.”
Boardball, for example, truly mimics the feeling of playing volleyball without the hassle of finding or setting up nets, Amanda says. Its competition-factor can be ramped up or down depending on who’s playing, and, perhaps most importantly, almost anyone can play.
Their latest challenge? Facing the fire by pitching the business on an upcoming episode of Dragon’s Den.
Asking $50,000 for 5% of the company, Amanda tells blogTO that pitching to the dragons was “honestly terrifying!”
“I’d been avoiding it for a while because putting yourself out there is incredibly vulnerable,” she says, “but deep down, I knew that the story behind Boardball, the brand, and the product itself deserved the opportunity to go as far as it can.”
To make the stakes even higher, Amanda was shocked to see an unexpected familiar face sitting in the chairs when she began her pitch.
“We had no idea Simu Liu would be there!” Amanda tells blogTO. “It was a complete surprise, but such an exciting one.”
“Getting to pitch to him was surreal—especially because he’s the only Marvel superhero I’ve ever had as a Boardball partner,” she adds.
As stressful as the entire situation may have felt to Amanda, she tells blogTO that thinking about her family helped to give her courage.
“My mom and her siblings lost their parents at a young age during the Cambodian genocide, and my dad escaped Vietnam as one of the boat people,” she explains.
“When I thought about how brave they had to be, I knew I had to take this leap. They came here with nothing, so the least I could do was take this chance to grow something meaningful. In the end, I’m so glad I did—it was one of the most worthwhile experiences of my life.”
“You’ll have to watch to see how it went,” she adds, “but I’m really proud of what we’ve built and where it’s headed.”
Tune in to CBC or CBC Gem at 8 p.m. on Oct. 10. to watch Amanda take on the dragons on Dragons’ Den.
